Like all journeys, there is eventually an end. We said we would cross that bridge when we came to it, and now here we are. So what is next, you may ask? You can click over to my new blog to which I’ll be posting images from new projects throughout the year. I want to co-write and illustrate a children’s book with my cousin Heather, do some collaborative sketches with good friend Ryan, decorate and work on my house (yes, this is art too!), learn to salsa dance, take a trip to New York, continue with my internship for the Satori Gallery, and have another art show in the fall (which will include all of these Trudger drawings). Is that enough on my plate to keep me busy in 2009? I think so. Keep in touch with me if you want to know when and where a future art show may land. I feel very happy to be coming to the end of this today. A happy goodbye and a sad one too (but mostly happy, for me). Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement. I wish you all a wonderful and adventurous trudge along your own roads of happy destiny as well. May God bless you and keep you until then.

Tomorrow, February 17’th, is the final day of the Trudger Project. Rather than make this a sad occasion, let’s party! If you’ve ever followed my Daily Trudger drawing project over the past year and would like to stop by and post a comment, then tomorrow would be the day to do it.

Some statistics: over the past 365 days of daily drawings posted, the Trudger blog averaged 428 views per month (about 12 visits per day). The month with the least amount of visits was July 2008 with 303 viewings, and the most was October 2008 with 746. The busiest day was October 1’st with 113 visits on that day alone. The most viewed daily drawing was September 30’th, “Slow Descent of a Red Square.” People finding the blog through links mostly clicked from my website, and the top 3 blogs that gave me the most traffic were Barbara’s “One Happy Fool,” Ann’s “Blue Bird Hill,” and Aneta’s “Progress not Perfection” blog. I want to thank all those bloggers (most of them are in my sidebar) that tagged the Trudger Project on their blog. Also, I can’t prove this, but I have the feeling the person who gave me the most feedback through comments was Miss Timaree of the “Freebirdsings” blog. Thanks also to the Every Day Matters and Focus 11 groups for all the enthusiastic encouragement. Thank you for your support. :). Thanks to Andrea Joseph for contacting me in order to trade This Drawing for her June 15’th 2007 drawing. I’m sure it went to a good home, and it’s the only Trudger drawing that won’t be originally displayed in the big show I have yet to have. I also want to thank fans and friends who mainly just checked out the Trudger drawings through Flickr. There are many, and its overwhelming me to even think about who all to mention. But thanks to all friends, family, and space cadets for your comments and encouragement.

Some of the funny things people did searches for in search engines, and then clicked on my blog to see what I had for them: sad girl sketches (the most), hiccups, drawing of a plateau, crop duster cartoon art, happy goodbye pictures, 8-bit operators, and hate-filled cats. I hope they all found what they were looking for.

So there it is. See you all tomorrow for the going away party for the Trudge!

Today is Friday the 13’th and tomorrow is Valentines day, so let’s love each other all spooky-like. Here are a few things to do on Valentines Day with your Valentine or BY YOURSELF! That’s right… this is all-inclusive, because we all know you single people without a Valentine are just not loving someone this year because you’re cutting expenses in a tough economy. So… dinner on Valentines day for 2 a little pricey? How about for 1? Much smarter. I knew you’d see it my way. So here we go:
1. Take your girl to the boat show (just kidding.. here we go for real now)
1. Take Grandma out with you for dinner
2. Call 5 friends or family members and tell them how grateful you are for having them in your life
3. Volunteer to walk dogs and feed baby kittens at your local Stray Rescue site
4. Ignore Valentines Day altogether. After all, this is all Hallmark’s doing. If you don’t like business-generated holidays, ignore it and just do what you normally do on Saturday
5. Go dancing (yes, you can go stag… I’ve done quite a bit of this. So TAKE COURAGE AND GO!)
6. Go see Micah’s Trudger Art Show hanging in the Murdoch Perk (yeah… you should have known that was coming!)
7. Stand on the street corner and hand out heart stickers to passersby.
8. Vacuum out your car and create a scrapbook of all the junk you find
9. Go over to Celeste’s house and give a big slobbery kiss to a baby.
10. Go to a mall and stick home-made valentines cards under people’s windshield wipers. The front of the card should have a heart on it, and the inside should read, “I don’t really love you, but here’s a valentines day card anyway” or “You are just one of the many victims of a gratuitous valentines day card in this parking lot.”

The one thing you should NOT (I repeat) NOT do on Valentines Day is join the mindless hordes of people out there staying at home playing old 45’s and feeling sorry for themselves. Don’t do it. There, now make your plans, and have a great weekend.